As the Memorial Day holiday launches the summer travel season, the sour economy has forced Americans to make fundamental changes in the way they take vacation, according to travel industry professionals and prospective vacationers across the USA.

Americans launch the summer travel season this Memorial Day weekend with half saying they don't plan to travel much and another quarter determined to spend less on vacations amid the recession, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

Fresh from its own six month, $2 million metamorphosis, the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center has reopened at Callaway Gardens, a 14,000-acre nature and recreation center in the Appalachian foothills. The octagonal, dome-shaped glass conservatory, nearly as tall as a four-story building, is home to more than 1,000 tropical butterflies, along with lush flowers that provide the insects with nectar.